The most sought-after ad spots were shown before TV shows streamed over the internet through the television networks’ “catch-up" services.

PwC predicted video advertising would grow 53.5 per cent in 2014 to $207 million, reaching $559 million by 2017. One of the IAB’s latest findings showed Australia was lagging significantly behind North America in its video advertising investment but on par with the UK.

Overall, Australian executives remained upbeat about the outlook for online video. The latest IAB study suggested current growth and the bullish outlook came at the expense of broadcast TV, print and online display ads.

In the US, debate was raging about whether media buyers and advertisers were caught in a bubble of enthusiasm around online video growth.

US industry journal AdAge reported analysis last week from Nielsen’s latest “Cross-Platform" media study, which showed web video accounted for just 2.3 per cent of total TV viewing, raising concerns Madison Avenue and Wall Street were “over indexing" the shift by the broader population in TV viewing habits away from the big TV screen.

“While some experts might lead one to believe otherwise, video consumption is not moving from TV to the web just yet," AdAge said.

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In the US companies spend about $4.1 billion in online video ads, or 6 per cent of total TV advertising.

Hard to reach

Ikon Communications performance media director Phil Cowlishaw said the amount of TV spots required today to reach the same number of viewers as three years ago on Australian TV was rising and could be offset by targeting people online with video ads. Mr Cowlishaw was a co-presenter last week of the IAB report.

“What we do know is it is harder to reach the same audience numbers with the same number of TV spots," he said. “You need to buy more TV spots."

The Video: State of the Industry report suggested concerns among Australian media buyers and publishers about online video advertising growth, primarily because of the scarcity of “premium" advertising availability.

The other good news in Australia was media publishers were being paid more to show video ads than the more common static display ads. The cost of video ads was up 16 per cent this year.

“That is a huge increase and Australia is probably the only market with such strong growth," said Map.tv’s Asia-Pacific managing director, Phil Duffield. “We’re not seeing it in any other market."

Mr Cowlishaw acknowledged the rising price of online video advertising, which as a media buyer he hoped would start “flatlining soon".

“We are paying higher [costs] and it continues to go up," he said. “I can’t tell you when it will stop but hopefully it will soon."

A US study by the Media Behaviour Institute claimed media professionals watched three times less TV than the general population and spent four times more time on social media.